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ART HISTORIAN TO DISCUSS ARTIFACTS FROM THE LIAO DYNASTY AT BARD COLLEGE ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—On Thursday, December 8, art historian Francois Louis will present a lecture on artifacts from the Liao dynasty. His talk, “Unearthing the Liao Dynasty,” takes place at 4:30 p.m. in room 115 of the Olin Language Center. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is presented by Bard in China, with support from the Freeman Undergraduate Asian Studies Initiative.
During the Tang era (618-907) the Khitan were mainly known as nomadic herders and horse breeders of the northeast. With the foundation of a Khitan state in the early 10th century, the situation changed dramatically and the Khitan elite, known as the Liao dynasty, became one of the major political forces in East Asia. While we have virtually no material record relating to predynastic Khitan culture, the new Liao aristocracy left an impressive amount of the most sophisticated material relics of the time, many of which were made by Chinese craftsmen and look Chinese. But recent discoveries also include ritual paraphernalia of a distinct Liao style. This lecture looks at some of the most striking of these latter artifacts, golden crowns, and discusses their design in relation to Khitan concerns about suzerainty and elite status, as well as national and ethnic identity.
Louis is an associate professor of Chinese art and archaeology at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture. He is editor-in-chief of ARTIBUS ASIAE: The Journal of Asian Art and Archaeology. Previously, he was an assistant curator and research associate at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich and a lecturer of art history at the University of Zurich.
For more information about the lecture, please call 845-758-7388 or e-mail gould@bard.edu.
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(11.22.05)